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The aim of this study is an investigation of fatigue properties and degradation development caused by cyclic loading in EN AW-2618A aluminum alloy fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). Recently, the growing significance of aluminum as a constructional material is evident, and due to possibility of manufacturing parts with complicated geometry, it would be beneficial to be able to produce high-strength aluminum alloys using SLM. Sets of SLM specimens using different process parameters and specimens from extruded material with the same chemical composition were produced. Bending fatigue tests using symmetric cycle at different stress amplitudes were performed. During the tests acoustic emission (AE) was recorded in order to observe processes occurring in the material. Obtained AE signal was correlated with fractographic analysis. Fatigue tests showed that extruded material had significantly better fatigue performance compared to SLM. Moreover, fatigue resistance of SLM material is strongly dependent on process parameters settings and production conditions. AE signal analysis and fractography revealed that development of damage in SLM alloy was completely different from extruded material.
Keywords: fatigue, EN AW-2618A, selective laser melting, acoustic emission© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.